The next morning, Aomori, who was meditating on his bed, sensed someone enter the room. He opened his eyes and saw the graceful figure of Sabrina standing before him. She wore a blue top and a white skirt, and her boots still reached high up her thighs.
She wasn't wearing sunglasses. A pair of bright, almond-shaped eyes seemed to hold a mysterious vortex, drawing Aomori's gaze and holding it fast.
"Have you looked enough?" Her voice was still cold, but carried a barely perceptible tremor.
"Yesterday, you were wearing sunglasses, so I couldn't observe it, but your mental power seems to be concentrated in your eyes," Aomori mused aloud.
"You can sense that?" Sabrina tilted her head, giving him a sidelong glance.
"Vaguely."
Sabrina looked quite normal today.
"I already know you used the detection helmet to test your mental power yesterday. Your mental strength is higher than I imagined. With a little focused practice, mastering the use of psychic powers will be a natural, water-flowing process."
"Oh, is that so? Let's talk after breakfast; I'm a bit hungry." Aomori had eaten a large meal here last night, but he was hungry again now.
"Your food is acceptable." It definitely wasn't because he was broke and wanted to freeload.
"..."
A flash of red light appeared in Sabrina's eyes, and she instantly teleported Aomori into her private dining room, sitting opposite him across a long dining table.
Without needing her instruction, various pastries, fruits, soups, and drinks were already laid out on the table.
Aomori released his Absol and Pidgeot, and they enjoyed the lavish breakfast together. Darkrai mainly consumes Dark-type energy, which ordinary food doesn't provide, but Aomori called him out to satisfy his palate anyway.
Darkrai had never tasted anything so delicious and was soon lost in the enjoyment of the food.
Sabrina, who was using her psychic power to lift food into her mouth, frequently cast her beautiful eyes toward Aomori's end of the table, clearly interested in Darkrai.
"By the way, you don't seem as terrifying as the rumors suggest," Aomori swallowed the strawberry shortcake in his mouth and picked up a chocolate cake. "Why would you do something so dreadful as turning challengers into dolls?"
Sabrina licked the cream off the corner of her mouth, wiped her face with a napkin, and replied, "I hate battling."
"So you deliberately spread those rumors?" Aomori felt his previous deduction about her was a bit off.
"Mm. If I encounter certain challengers I dislike, I turn them into dolls. But I release them after they've stayed for a few days."
"What about your father? He said you didn't even spare him."
"You've met him? Is he still in Saffron City?"
"Yes, I saw him just two days ago."
Sabrina picked up the little girl doll and played with it in her hand. "At the time, I wasn't skilled enough at controlling my psychic powers and went on a rampage once. He ran out then. I tried to search for him a few times but couldn't find him. I thought he had left Saffron City, so I stopped looking later on."
Hiss~
This is a huge misunderstanding!
It's all the baseball cap-wearing man's fault for being so paranoid and hiding too well.
Taking a bite of the cheese pizza, Aomori tried to advocate for the baseball cap-wearing man one last time: "What about your mother? She wasn't turned into a doll by you?"
"Her?" Sabrina's movements paused, and she stared straight at Aomori for a long time before finally speaking. "Once, my mother didn't feel like working and got playful, so she asked me to turn her into a doll. Later, she somehow became fascinated with the feeling and only returns to her adult form for a few days each month to spend time with me. My mother is quite shy and has always maintained the image of a wise and kind wife and mother in public, so she asked me not to tell anyone about this."
Ahem, this family is truly extraordinary.
Aomori couldn't help but smile wryly, having never expected this to be the situation. "I was thinking of coming here to 'save' you, the 'Perverted Young Lady'."
"'Perverted Young Lady'?" Sabrina glared at him. "Are you finished eating? If you are, hurry up and come with me to the training room."
'I accidentally said the wrong thing,' Aomori thought. He reluctantly looked at the food on the table, then nodded to Sabrina: "I'm done."
With a slight lift of her slender hand, Sabrina activated her psychic power, teleporting Aomori, Absol, and the others to another room.
In the dining room, Darkrai, seeing the space empty, blinked its blue eyes. It quickly devoured one apple, two pears, and three oranges before transforming into a shadow and chasing after Aomori's scent.
"This is where my Pokémon train."
In the spacious room, Aomori saw Pokémon like Abra, Kadabra, Mr. Mime, Jynx, Exeggutor, and Wigglytuff—all of them possessing the Psychic type or capable of mastering Psychic-type moves.
The particularly gifted Abra he'd seen yesterday was also among them.
Some were using telekinesis to twist Rubik's cubes, some were controlling dumbbells to move up and down, and some were battling each other. All of them were diligently training.
"Huh, why don't I see Alakazam?" Alakazam should be Sabrina's signature Pokémon.
"I usually keep Alakazam in its Kadabra form and only evolve it when necessary. This reduces the strain from receiving too much information when its mental power is too strong." Sabrina gently stroked the head of an Abra, a slight smile gracing her lips.
"Does that happen to you, too?"
"It used to, but not anymore."
Does that mean that before she completely mastered her psychic powers, she frequently received overwhelming information, but now that she has reached a higher level, she can actively choose to receive or discard it?
Aomori seemed lost in thought.
Sabrina then led him to a small side room.
The walls of this room seemed to be made of special sound-insulating material; once the door was closed, the room was instantly cut off from the noise outside.
"Ao..." Sabrina took a breath, pointed to a cushion on the floor, and said, "Aomori-san, please sit here."
"Just call me Aomori. I'll call you Sabrina from now on, to save someone from padding the word count." Aomori followed her request and sat cross-legged on the cushion.
"Mm, that's fine." Sabrina tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and stood behind Aomori, speaking in the calmest voice possible: "Clear your mind, and banish all distracting thoughts."
"Okay."
"Don't speak. Just listen to me."
"..." Aomori forced himself to empty his mind, entering a meditative state.
"Oh." Sabrina let out a surprised sound. She hadn't expected Aomori to calm down so quickly. She had originally planned to use hypnosis to help him enter the state faster.
By the look of his posture, it seemed like a method for rapid entry into meditation.
Many people struggle to concentrate because of too many stray thoughts, which is why they resort to methods like bending spoons to gradually improve their focus. If a method for rapid entry into meditation existed, it would be immensely helpful to the Awakening Laboratory.
Suppressing the urge to question him immediately, Sabrina placed her hands on his temples, slowly permeating his mind with her mental power, and continued to guide Aomori: "Imagine you are in a space, and imagine yourself constantly floating upwards, ascending higher and higher, until you can no longer proceed."
Following her instructions, Aomori's consciousness appeared in an ethereal space, lifted by a force into an inexplicably high altitude until it touched a transparent barrier.
"Look down. Can you see it? That ocean is your world of the mind."
Aomori's consciousness looked down from the height and saw only a vast lake, its boundaries faintly visible.
So, he lightly nodded and then shook his head.
"?" Sabrina didn't understand what he meant, so she could only continue: "Try to manipulate the water within."
Manipulate the water within? Aomori tried to control his consciousness, filling it with the imagery of surging waves, and the mental power lake below began to ripple.
After a long while, a proper wave finally rose.
A sudden burst of joy made Aomori immediately exit the conceptual space and open his eyes.
Sabrina let go of him and praised, "To be able to control your mental power the first time you enter the conceptual space, you are very good. You have now found the entrance. The next step is long-term training; the more water you can control, the more mental power you can manipulate."
"Thank you!" Aomori thanked her sincerely.
"You're welcome. I'm just fulfilling my promise." As soon as she finished speaking, Sabrina vanished.
Having tasted the experience of becoming stronger, Aomori was impatient to continue practicing.
"Did I forget something? Never mind, it probably wasn't important."
...
"Still no news today. He must be gone."
Glancing at the Saffron Gym before him, the baseball cap-wearing man turned and walked away in solitude.
"I led him to his doom. What a fine young man. I'll just have to wait for the next opportunity. This safe house can't be used anymore. Good thing I prepared three more."
"Don't worry, Sabrina, and Aomori, I will definitely save you both!" the baseball cap-wearing man swore, tears welling up in his eyes.
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You can read the ahead chapter on Patr-eon if you're interested: p-atre-on.c-om/Overgod [Just remove the hyphen to access normally]